THIS WEEK IN FORD RACING

Loudon, N.H. — The last time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a Ford ended up in victory lane as Greg Biffle started the 10-race Chase with his second win of the season.

Ford drivers Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Biffle talked about the flat one-mile oval and their hopes for Sunday’s race.

MATT KENSETH – NO. 17 DEWALT FORD FUSION
DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS MAKING PROGRESS?
“At times. It’s not like a steady uphill graph where we’ve been doing a little bit better every week and we keep getting better and we’re almost there. We have about a four-week run where we were running pretty good and then we had a couple weeks where things didn’t go right.

"The Pocono race, we performed really well and our fuel mileage wasn’t good enough and the way we pitted at the end, we didn’t get a good finish. Then at Michigan we just ran pathetically terrible. We left a wheel loose and lost a lap, got that back, and then couldn’t make it to the end on fuel without running half-throttle and ran around half-throttle to make sure we made it on fuel.”

THERE ARE ONLY 10 RACES LEFT UNTIL THE CHASE. ARE YOU EYEING THAT AS A POINT WHERE YOU WANT TO GET ALL OF THESE ISSUES WORKED OUT AND THEN RUN FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP?
“You want to win every week. You never try to say, ‘Oh man, we need to be great when we get here.’ You want to be great every week and bring your best stuff and run the best you can. Honestly, I don’t even know where we are in points, but I know we’re not in a position where we can start thinking about the Chase. I mean, if we don’t get running better and finishing better, we’re not even gonna make the Chase, so we’ve got to worry more about getting the best finish we can get each and every week and get as many points as we can each and every week.”

THOUGHTS ON LOUDON.
“I don’t know what to expect from week to week lately, so I don’t know. Greg won the last race there, so that’s good, but since we started running these style of cars at Loudon the last few races, we as the 17 have not run very well there. I honestly don’t know what to expect. We’re gonna try some different stuff there we haven’t done before, and, hopefully, we’ll get there and be okay.”

GREG BIFFLE – NO. 16 3M FORD FUSION
YOU’VE VOICED SOME CONCERNS ABOUT FLAT TRACKS THIS YEAR. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT LOUDON?
“I think we’re going to be good. I’m optimistic. We’re going back with the same setup, the same everything, just like we were and I’m pretty confident. I’m not going back there with a chip on my shoulder saying we’re going to win this thing, I’m going back saying we’re going to run in the top 10 and continue our good run and make the Chase. I’m going to use it as a tool to do that and think about coming back later on when we’re in the Chase hopefully and try to win that one.”

YOU SAID “HOPEFULLY” MAKE THE CHASE. YOU DON’T REALLY HAVE A CUSHION TO WHERE THAT’S A SURE THING RIGHT NOW, SO YOU HAVE TO GO AS HARD AS YOU CAN.
“We’ve got to work as hard as we can and we’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to be cautious and get those points, whether it’s a fifth, seventh or a third. We try as hard as we can. We try and win every one of them, but the fact of the matter is we can’t take chances. We’ve got to get good finishes and take care of our equipment.”

BOBBY LABONTE – NO. 96 ASK.COM FORD FUSION
LOUDON IS LIKE PHOENIX IN THAT IT’S A FLAT ONE-MILE TRACK. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
“I’ve liked Loudon in the past and always felt like I’ve run well there, but we struggled so bad at Phoenix that I’m a little nervous about going there, to be honest with you. But I think we’ve got some things that we can take from Phoenix and throw away and not go there with, so I think we do have some of that figured out. I didn’t fight as much with this car as I did the old car sometimes, so I kind of adapted to this car better there than I did at other places. It’s a neat track to race on, it’s just a hard track to pass on.”

THEY DID SOME GRINDING ON THAT TRACK A FEW YEARS AGO. HAS THAT HELPED?
“A little bit. They’re trying. It was probably better years ago and the faster we go the worse it gets with a flatter track, but they’ll have double-file restarts so that will fix everything.”

HOW ARE THINGS PROGRESSING WITH BEN [LESLIE] AS CREW CHIEF?
“We’ve taken a step forward, but we’re still looking for more steps forward. There are things I feel like I need to have in a race car to go faster. I don’t want to go slower, I want to go faster. Finding that balance and that trend is difficult to do with this car, but, at the same time, it’s a team effort and we all have to work together at it. I have to give and everybody else has to give, too. The bottom line is I’m responsible for what I’m driving on Sunday, but there are times I feel like we can make it better, too. I might not be the fastest guy on the block, but I haven’t lost confidence in what I do know and sometimes trying to get that balance and getting that across—because you know what you want, you know what you need to feel—and trying to get that to the point where it makes sense for everybody. We’re getting there one step at a time, but it’s not like it’s going to happen overnight and everybody has to keep working in the right direction in the thought process of we’re out here to win races and we’re not out here to just ride around.”

IS YOUR SITUATION A BY PRODUCT OF NO TESTING THIS YEAR?
“You look in the garage area with how you’re parked and it’s basically how you run every week. I know that’s pretty stupid to say it because that’s the way the points are, but, in reality, it just kind of lands that way and the guys that are up front—Tony Stewart is probably an exception, but they’ve got a lot of good people there—but the guys up there have been together a long time. So whether it’s the new car or old car, this year or last year, it’s still an example of the team building and the characteristics and personalities of everybody there to make it better and not try to tear anything down. Those guys make changes, but they’re strong enough to make them in the right direction. Team is really important to keep yourself going in the right direction week-in and week-out, to make small steps better than trying to go one step forward and two steps back.”

YOU AND PAUL MENARD SEEM TO HAVE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP AS TEAMMATES. IS THIS STILL JUST A GROWING PROCESS WITH THESE TWO TEAMS?
“Relatively, it is. That’s the way I look at it. It’s still a new process. They’ve made some changes from last year to this year. Paul is new over there and Larry [Carter, crew chief] is new over there, so there are a lot of new things. It’s no different than anybody else out there. You wonder what other people are going to be doing and then all of a sudden when they hit their stride they hit their stride, and when we hit our stride we will, but you still try to find that balance at all times and make sure you don’t do the wrong things. I feel like we’re still in a building mode to a certain extent as far as trying to get everything going in that forward direction better than what it is.”